The Healing Power of Essential Oils by Dr. Eric Zielinski, D.C.

I have a friend who uses essential oils to promote health. I have another who eschews medical use and will only use essential oils for cleaning. I have a family member who believes in bleach, chemicals, and antibiotics. If you do an internet search on essential oils, there's an insane amount of information, and it's frequently conflicting.

Enter The Healing Power of Essential Oils by Eric Zielinski, D.C. In this book, Dr. Zielinski, who is a health researcher and aromatherapist, begins to disentangle the truth, half-truth, propaganda, and nonsense that can surround the use of essential oils. In my opinion, he's more evidence-based than what is normally found in the blogsphere or essential oil Facebook groups. He's also quick to state that in some oils, there just hasn't been a lot of research or there is still more research needed.

This book covers numerous topics: fundamentals of aromatherapy, using essential oils safely, how to start off, house cleaning with essential oils, basic essential oil recipes for wellness, more advanced recipes for specific physical issues with an emphasis on women's health, and more! It took me a few weeks to read through this book and I was bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information, including a few parts that were very scientific. That being said, Dr. Z's approach is to start with what you can. No, you can't completely change everything all at once. Integrate what you can and add more as you learn.

And I did learn a lot in the book! Overall, it's very understandable and Dr. Z lays down the safety issues and basic procedures at the very beginning. He also repeats that you should listen to you body, discontinue use if something seems off, and that we all have biological differences stemming from gender, race, family history, etc... therefore, what works great for one person may only give moderate relief to someone else.

So, did this book convert me to essential oils? Maybe. It's definitely opened my mind up to them and exposed some harmful substances I wasn't aware of. (example: toxicity of hand sanitizer) I do plan to start small and give some of this a try. I will keep The Healing Power of Essential Oils by Eric Zielinski, D.C. on my bookshelf for future reference.

One last note: Dr. Z. is a proponent of Biblical health and mentions prayer and Biblical health guidelines throughout the book. If you are uncomfortable with that, this book may not be for you.

I encourage you to visit Dr. Zielinski's website or read an excerpt from The Healing Power of Essential Oils on the publisher's website.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."